


The Plan

by The_Clockwork_Monk



Series: Aang/Katara Missing Scenes [6]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Deleted Scenes, Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Katara is bad at feelings, Lack of Communication, Missing Scene, Mutual Pining, POV Katara (Avatar), Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25878940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Clockwork_Monk/pseuds/The_Clockwork_Monk
Summary: With Sokka and Zuko gone during "The Boiling Rock," Katara can no longer avoid talking to Aang about what happened before the invasion.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Katara
Series: Aang/Katara Missing Scenes [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1640980
Comments: 10
Kudos: 61





	The Plan

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a stand alone one-shot and is not in continuity with the other stories in this series.

When they got back, she was going to kill them.

After all the trouble Zuko and Aang went through to start their firebending training, which was the entire _reason_ why they had been willing to put up with the Angry Jerk, Zuko then decides to just vanish with her brother and leave Aang to figure out firebending on his own!

And for what? To get _meat._

_I swear, if Sokka's stomach is what ends up costing us the war…._

"Whoa! Watch it, Katara, I don't have to tell you how sensitive an earthbender's feet are!"

"Oh, sorry Toph!"

As Katara had been applying yet another healing session to the blind girl's burned feet, her wandering thoughts had gotten her so annoyed and frustrated that she had applied more energy than she meant to, causing a tingling sensation to shoot up Toph's legs. She tried to calm herself and focus on the task at hand.

But Toph didn't let her move on, "What's got you so worked up, anyway?"

"Oh," said Katara dismissively, "I still just can't believe Zuko and Sokka left without saying a word, for such a dumb reason."

Toph shrugged, "Hey, I don't think it's a dumb reason. I'll gladly take some jerky over stale bread and whatever plants Aang manages to scrounge up."

Katara got flustered at the mention of Aang, like she always did recently.

The _other_ reason she was so annoyed at Sokka and Zuko for leaving, which she would never admit to Toph, was that it left fewer distractions between her and Aang. Ever since the eclipse, they had barely spent a moment together without other people around, but with two members of their group gone, one bedridden, and three always disappearing to explore the temple, that increased the chances of them being forced to talk about—

"Speaking of Twinkletoes," Toph continued, absentmindedly digging a finger in her ear and interrupting Katara's brooding, "why don't you go practice waterbending with him? Sparky's gone, and I'm no use to him right now, you're the only one of his teachers still on the job. And you usually jump at any chance you can get to splash around with him, but you two have stayed bone-dry since we got here. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were avoiding him."

Katara froze and her eyes widened in panic, "What? That's ridiculous!"

Now it was Toph's turn to freeze, her finger still in her ear, "Wait, you _are_ avoiding him? I was just joking!"

Katara winced. Apparently Toph could still detect lies even if just her bum was on the ground.

" _Why_ are you avoiding him?" Toph pressed her, "What happened?"

"I…." Katara hesitated. There was really no point in trying to lie, was there? "I don't want to tell you."

Toph frowned, "Suit yourself. But it's probably not good for the mission for you two to not be talking. And I hate to break it to you, but _you're_ probably going to have to be the one to bring it up with him, whatever it is."

"What? What makes you assume that?"

Toph found what she had been searching for in her ear and flicked it away, "Well, facing things head-on isn't really in his nature, remember? He's an airbender, he just endlessly dances around everything."

This wasn't an idea that Katara found appealing. She sighed and stood up.

"I'm going to find more herbs."

Toph waved her away, "Yeah, yeah, go brood until you feel better. With Zuko you've finally got competition for the title of moodiest team member."

Katara scowled and stormed away from the blind smart-mouth.

It's true that many of the vines and mosses found around the temple could be used for healing and cooking, but Katara's bag was already full. It was true, she was storming off to brood, and frankly she didn't think there was anything wrong with that, _thank you very much._ She felt like she was entitled to some brooding time, considering what she was trying to process.

She wrung her hands together in a renewed wave of frustration toward her stupid, reckless friend and savior of the world.

Why couldn't he have just followed _The Plan!?_ Not only was he so rude that he didn't follow her plan, but he had forced her to realize that she had, in fact, been subconsciously _making_ a plan. The nerve of him.

Of course the thought had occurred to her. Of course she had considered the _possibility_ of a romantic relationship with Aang. After the fortune she had gotten from Aunt Wu and their incident in the Cave of Two Lovers, how could she not? The thought had occurred to her about dang near every bender she met since she had gotten that stupid prediction. For a brief moment in the crystal caves, she had even wondered if the "powerful bender" was supposed to be _Zuko_. She suddenly shuddered at the thought and pushed the memory away before she threw up.

But even if Aang was the man Aunt Wu saw in her future, certainly it wasn't supposed to happen _now._ They were in the middle of saving the world! Did he somehow think they didn't have enough to worry about, so decided to throw in some romantic drama for good measure? And even if they didn't have a dangerous mission, there was no way they were ready to be…. _together_ because even if Aang wasn't the Avatar and was just a normal kid, he was still just _a kid._

Heck, _she_ was still just a kid! And no one was better at reminding her of that than Aang, that's exactly what she lo—what she liked about him. By losing her mother, she had been forced to try to act more grown up, but Aang was the one who reminded her that that wasn't how it was supposed to be, and she deserved to take her time. _He_ was the one who took her penguin sledding for the first time in years. _He_ was the very person who made her feel like she wasn't ready for what he wanted. She didn't know how to be somebody's _girlfriend,_ even the word sounded absurd in her head.

Or at least….that's how it was at first.

Despite herself, she had to admit that there were brief moments, happening more often recently, when being around Aang didn't make her feel like a kid, and made her feel like….well, like a _woman._ She had always been able to see past the power of the mighty Avatar and see Aang as a _person_ , but now she was realizing, to her horror, that Aang was a _boy._

He had grown up a lot, and not just because he was now almost as tall as her. How resolute he was in trying to fix things when he first rejoined the land of the living, their dance in front of the Fire Nation school kids, and in a different circumstance she might admit that kissing her before flying off to save the world was a bit…. _romantic._ It was like something out of those silly stories Gran-Gran would tell her when she was a girl, only now she was the brave princess _in_ the story.

Those early days of traveling with Aang when he would veer them off course just to show her something cool seemed so long ago now. There had been a brief moment when they first arrived at the Western Temple where it looked like Aang might start shying away from his tough responsibilities again, but then he had shown more maturity than she thought possible (certainly more than she was capable of, apparently) and put aside his personal feelings for Zuko to fulfill his duty to learn firebending.

Seeing him like that gave her a confidence she hadn't known before. With Aang beside her, she truly believed that their impossible mission just might be possible. It had also started to lead her to believe that maybe she and Aang were up to taking that next step after all….

She shook her head to clear out the intrusive thoughts. Her feet were carrying her nowhere in particular now, her having dropped all pretense about looking for herbs.

No. There was one final issue. Even if they had matured beyond their years and were each ready for _A_ relationship, that didn't make it any less of a bad idea for them to enter a relationship _with each other._ Again, she reminded herself that she didn't know the first thing about being somebody's girlfriend, and the only way to learn was trial and error. And she didn't want to make errors with Aang. He was too important to her. He was her best friend in the world, she couldn't risk losing him.

And that was exactly what they risked if they didn't do this properly. Everyone screwed up their first relationships, right? People make mistakes. They don't know how to go about things. After all, nobody is _born_ knowing how to put another person's feelings before their own. There's no teachers to _train_ you in how to communicate your feelings when not even you understand them. And so, people end up hurting each other. Sometimes, they hurt each other so badly, that they never recover. And the thought of hurting Aang, even unintentionally, _horrified_ her. Especially the thought of hurting him so badly that they couldn't go back to being friends.

And so, that was why, without even realizing she was doing it, she had started to form The Plan.

 _The Plan_ was for them to win the war, remain best friends, and date _other people._ Maybe even go through a couple of people each. And _there_ they would get all of their dumb mistakes out of the way, all of the hurtful miscommunications that split people apart in the stories. And they would _learn_ from those mistakes, _learn_ how to share a life with someone.

Then, one day, they'd realize that what they had truly been searching for had been right in front of them the whole time. He'd show her some new waterbending trick he made up, the drops catching the moonlight (this would happen at night, under the full moon), and she'd look up into his silver-gray eyes (he's several inches taller than her by this time), then she'd tentatively reach up her hand to his face to stroke his beard (oh yeah, and he has a beard now too), and then finally their lips would start to move closer together and—

" _Ahem,"_ she cleared her throat loudly to herself, swallowed hard, and splashed herself in the face with a stream from her bending pouch.

 _Anyway,_ the point was that _then_ they would live happily ever after, never getting into fights or hurting each other.

But then Aang had to go and ruin her Plan by doing everything _too early._ He had opened a box that was now impossible to close, they now had to bumble through their feelings for each other without knowing what the heck they were doing, flying by the seat of their pants.

Was it really now or never? If she rejected him now, would he be hurt and not want to be with her later? This is exactly what she wanted to avoid. Why couldn't he have just _followed The Plan!?_

She turned a corner and had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep herself from yelping.

There he was. He was sitting cross-legged near the edge of a courtyard, in front of the dropoff into the canyon. He seemed to be drawing something in the dirt with a stick.

Katara's first instinct was to turn and run away, but she stopped herself. She was being _stupid,_ she realized _._ She was angry at this _thing_ for interfering with her life, so she decided to stop letting one little kiss come between her and her best friend.

Why _couldn't_ they just ignore what had happened and just go back to the way things were? Seriously, why not? After all, if _she_ didn't bring it up, then _he_ certainly wasn't going to. As embarrassed and awkward as she was, she knew Aang had to be feeling it even worse. Not only was he even younger than she was, _he_ was the one who did the kissing! Toph was right, Aang was an airbender, he avoided confrontation whenever he could, preferring to dance around everything. He would certainly drop hints, try to poke and prod her into broaching the issue first, but she could dismiss that easily enough, she didn't have to take the bait.

So, confident in her new sense of denial, she strode briskly into the courtyard behind him. He seemed so lost in thought that he hadn't even sensed her footsteps or heartbeat walking up to him, stopping just a few yards away. Toph would really rake him over the coals if she knew how badly her student was failing her.

" _Ahem,"_ Katara cleared her throat again.

Aang froze for a split second, then in one motion, quickly leapt to his feet and spun to face her, propelled by a blast of air. He landed on his feet and quickly sent another blast of air behind him to blow away whatever it was he had been drawing in the dirt.

"Oh, uh, hey Katara," Aang stammered, "What's up?" He started to blush furiously.

 _Nip that right in the bud,_ she thought.

Behind her back, she flipped open the stopper on her bending pouch, "Aang, I need you to do something very important for me."

Aang perked up and nodded vigorously, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I was actually hoping to talk to you about—"

Katara's eyes widened in panic. _Oh no you don't._

"I need you to…. _catch!"_

She flicked her wrist, and sent a stream of water directly into Aang's face, soaking him and knocking him flat on his butt.

Katara burst out laughing, reset the water into a floating stream above her, and set herself in a fighting stance.

"Come on, Avatar!" she teased him, "Let's see some of that firebending! I bet I can make you a better firebender than Zuko can, we don't really need him!"

But her smile faltered when she saw that Aang was still sitting on the ground, not smiling at all, in fact his eyes were narrowed severely at her.

" _Seriously?"_ he asked incredulously, rising to his feet again and bending the water off of him, "I thought maybe you might want to talk? Can't you think of anything that we should maybe talk about?"

 _This was a terrible idea,_ Katara realized with panic, looking around for an escape, _Toph really doesn't give herself enough credit for teaching him how to face things head-on._

"I don't know what you're talking about," she told him unconvincingly, not looking at him, which was probably a bad idea considering she was trying to spar with him, "Now stop trying to get out of training! Give me your best shot—"

"—Katara, _stop!"_ Aang cut her off

He stepped forward, looking piercingly up into her eyes, still not _quite_ as tall as her (did caring about that make her a bad person?)

"Don't….don't make me do this. Don't make me go back to pretending!" he snapped at her. Katara couldn't breathe, he had never gotten this upset directly _at her_.

Aang closed his eyes, took a deep breath, turned away from her, and leaned against a stone column.

"I'm sorry," he said in a quiet voice, "I shouldn't speak to you that way, I realize this is entirely my fault."

Katara's heart ached. She always hated it when Aang blamed himself for something. She wanted to protest, assure him that it wasn't his fault, even though this particular thing quite literally was.

"I just…." he continued, wincing as he tried to get words out, "I just didn't expect this. I didn't expect….having to be here. With you."

Katara frowned. " _Having"_ to be here with her? She hadn't realized it was such an unpleasant experience.

"When I flew away from that submarine," he continued, looking far away, "I assumed that by the end of the day, either the war would be over….or I would be dead."

Her stomach jolted in horror and she swallowed hard, as she always did at the idea that Aang might not make it through this.

"I never considered the possibility that I would fail, but continue to live. I didn't imagine us still having to fight, to spend time together. My Plan was that, with the war over, if you didn't feel…. _that way_ about me—"

 _I never said that I didn't!_ she thought at him sharply, remaining silent.

"—then we could deal with it in a relaxed environment. Maybe even avoid each other for a while until it stopped being weird. This—" he gestured around at the Temple "—this wasn't part of The Plan."

Katara felt a swell of anger at him for making a "Plan" about her without talking to her, immediately followed by a pang of guilt over what a _colossal_ hypocrite that made her.

Aang turned back around to face her, and those gray eyes seemed to bore into her. He took a deep, meditative breath and let it out.

"It's okay if you don't feel the same way about me, Katara. You're not obligated to, but don't just….leave it hanging in the air, that's torture. Don't make me pretend."

Katara was speechless. Her mouth kept opening and closing but she couldn't form a full sentence.

"Aang….I….I don't….I'm not saying—"

The loud croak of a nearby firefrog split the tension and made them both jump. They stood in silence for a few seconds before Aang gave her a friendly smirk, shrugged, and said, "Duty calls, I guess."

He turned away from her, walked a few paces away and started on his assigned hotsquats.

Katara's legs suddenly remembered how to work again and she turned and quietly slipped away from the courtyard.

Well that was….not _pleasant,_ certainly, but it wasn't painful either. Aang had clearly, calmly, _maturely_ explained what he had been thinking, and now she had a better understanding of how her friend felt. That was supposed to be…. _hard._ There was none of the messiness that she had made The Plan to avoid.

There was the little detail that _she_ didn't mirror his maturity, so she still wasn't sure if they (or rather, _she_ ) were ready for more than friendship, but still, now that both their Plans had apparently unravelled….

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to make a Plan B.

**Author's Note:**

> I realize that this isn't so much a "scene" as it is a rambling, barely-coherent stream of consciousness that would be impossible to actually depict on screen, and therefore it doesn't fit the stated goal of this series, but whatever. 
> 
> I also realize you could call this a canon divergence, since Aang's maturity here doesn't match AT ALL with how he behaves during "Ember Island Players," but according to me that episode isn't canon anyway. It's the worst scene in the entire series.
> 
> Hell, the writers might agree with me, since nothing that happens in that episode ends up mattering anyway. That scene is framed as being a Big Deal in Katara's and Aang's relationship...but then it's never even mentioned again and they get together in the final scene with zero explanation or words said between them.
> 
> So I think THIS scene is actually more faithful to Aang's growth and arc up to that point in the story, before that scene kind of threw it all away and turned a lot of fans against Kataang right at the last minute.


End file.
